Jaan Tallinn

Who invented it? Just three years after it was launched, over 115
million people across the globe are already phoning with Skype. But
only a small number of “Skypers” know that the software was developed
in Estonia. And most of the ideas for Skype still come from the 200
engineers working at the development center in Tallinn.

In Estonia, the three programmers Ahti Heinla, Priit Kasesalu and Jaan
Tallinn have become something akin to popular heroes. They have twice
brought this small country into the international headlines, thereby
strengthening their homeland’s reputation as an up-and-coming IT tiger.

Their first successful coup took place in 2001 with the launch of the
software Kazaa, from which the largest internet exchange site for
pictures, songs and videos developed. Kazaa, which is now owned by the
company Sharman Networks, has to date been downloaded some 389 million
times, which is a record. In August 2003, the original three pioneers
scored their next hit  a software called Skype that allows users
to make free phone calls over the internet.

Jaan is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on P2P
technologies and is often credited for helping to establish Estonia’s
global reputation for world class software and engineering talent. As a
result of Kazaa and Skype,
he currently holds the world’s record for
the largest number of software downloads at almost 500 million.

In 1989, he helped create
Kosmonaut, the first
Estonian computer
game to be published outside his country.
In 1996, he
graduated from the
University of Tartu
with a BSc in Theoretical
Physics. His thesis involved travelling interstellar distances using
warps in space-time.